In my recent post titled “Killjoy Beach, 07719” I lamented the fact that scientists had yet to locate the “smokers’ gene” that would be proof that we smokers can’t help ourselves and should not be harassed for doing what we need to do. My wait is over.
Today’s Asbury Park Press reprints a story from Healthday magazine that confirms what I suspected all along. It seems that three different studies indicate that predisposition to nicotine addiction is in the genes of smokers. Money quote:
Dr. Norman H. Edelman, scientific consultant to the American Lung Association, said that the information reported by the study “adds to the current limited data indicating that predilection to smoking has some, perhaps significant, genetic component.”
However, Edelman said he thinks that any direct benefit from the findings is a ways off.
“I don’t think it will directly alter our approach to smoking cessation and prevention in the short term, but down the line it may help change attitudes toward smokers,” he said.
Too many people think of smokers as having self-imposed diseases, Edelman said. “Now we can see some had to fight a genetic predilection while being addicted by an aggressive tobacco industry while they were children, as almost all smokers start as teens or preteens.”
Robert West, a professor of health psychology and director of tobacco studies at the Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Unit at the University College London, added that “there is clear evidence of a genetic contribution to development of nicotine dependence.”
Read the full article here.
Based on the scientific evidence that has been brought to light, I hereby claim smokers to be a protected minority under The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and under the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990. I call on the federal government and all state and local governments (including Belmar’s) to cease and desist collecting all “sin” taxes on tobacco and end all restrictions currently being imposed on smoking outdoors or in private establishments. Failure to do so will result in civil rights lawsuits (or so I hope).
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